CodePath SE102 - Session 1 (Fall 2021)

Transcript

1. Welcome to Week 1!
   Feel free to talk in the room chat
   CodePath Intermediate Software Engineering
   What’s your dream company or
   prodoct that you’d want to work
   on?
   

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2. • Intros
   • Why study programming problems?
   • Goals
   • Breakout sessions - meet your pod!
   • Top 5 coding interview mistakes

   and how to avoid them
   • Free form Q&A!
   Agenda
   

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3. Instructor Intros!
   Caren Paulina Ben
   Sushma Noel
   

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4. TA Intros!
   Allison
   Amanda Best
   Geethika Rashmi Trang
   

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5. Coding Interviews are difficult
   

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6. Coding Interviews are difficult
   Like most things in life, 

   luck plays a big factor
   

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7. Coding Interviews are difficult
   Like most things in life, 

   luck plays a big factor
   Luck is when preparation meets
   opportunity
   

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8. Goals for the course
   

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9. Goals for the course
   • Be able to go into phone screens with confidence
   

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10. Goals for the course
    • Be able to go into phone screens with confidence
    • Most questions follow the same pattern!
    • The key is repeated practice

    

    

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11. Goals for the course
    • Be able to go into phone screens with confidence
    • Most questions follow the same pattern!
    • The key is repeated practice

    

    • Learn more about the tech industry
    

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12. Goals for the course
    • Be able to go into phone screens with confidence
    • Most questions follow the same pattern!
    • The key is repeated practice

    

    • Learn more about the tech industry
    • Be prepared to continue studying and practicing
    after the course ends
    

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13. How are we going to work
    towards the goal?
    

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14. How are we going to work
    towards the goal?
    • Lectures to reinforce concepts and walkthrough techniques
    

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15. How are we going to work
    towards the goal?
    • Lectures to reinforce concepts and walkthrough techniques
    • In class exercises for hands-on practice
    

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16. How are we going to work
    towards the goal?
    • Lectures to reinforce concepts and walkthrough techniques
    • In class exercises for hands-on practice
    • Extra practice problems and review materials to help you fill
    potential gaps
    

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17. How are we going to work
    towards the goal?
    • Lectures to reinforce concepts and walkthrough techniques
    • In class exercises for hands-on practice
    • Extra practice problems and review materials to help you fill
    potential gaps
    • Weekly HackerRank assessments to keep yourself on track
    

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18. How are we going to work
    towards the goal?
    • Lectures to reinforce concepts and walkthrough techniques
    • In class exercises for hands-on practice
    • Extra practice problems and review materials to help you fill
    potential gaps
    • Weekly HackerRank assessments to keep yourself on track
    • Mentors, fellow classmates, instructors for help and support
    

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19. What is your personal
    goal for the next 12 weeks?
    

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20. Expectations
    Attend weekly sessions

    Tuesdays and Saturdays
    Complete weekly HackerRank test

    *linked in course portal every week
    Optional resources: extra reading and practice
    problems
    

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21. https://courses.codepath.com/courses/
    intermediate_software_eng
    Course Portal
    

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22. Course Portal
    

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23. Course Portal
    

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24. Course Portal
    

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25. Course Portal
    

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26. Pods / Teams
    

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27. Pods / Teams
    • 5-6 students per team
    • This is the group you’ll be working with for the next
    12 weeks
    • Help support each other throughout the course!
    

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28. Pods / Teams
    • Find your pod number, prepend it to your name
    right now! (Caren to send link in Zoom chat)
    • Students: 5 - Caren Chang
    • Mentors: 4, 5 - Caren Chang
    

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29. Mentors
    • Engineers working in the tech industry - some are
    past students of this course!
    • Will be there for most of your Satuday sessions to
    help you through in-class exercises
    

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30. In class exercises
    

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31. In class exercises
    • Break out into small groups of 5-6
    • Work on problems together for the topic of the
    week
    • Great practice for phone interviews!
    

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32. Our first in class exercise!
    

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33. Our first in class exercise!
    • Most common interview question: “Tell me a little
    about yourself”
    

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34. Our first in class exercise!
    In a moment, we’re all going to into small groups with our pods
    

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35. Our first in class exercise!
    In a moment, we’re all going to into small groups with our pods
    Start by having everybody introduce themselves in alphabetical
    order
    

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36. Our first in class exercise!
    In a moment, we’re all going to into small groups with our pods
    Start by having everybody introduce themselves in alphabetical
    order
    Take 5 minutes to prep for your answer (guidance in course portal).
    Your ‘spiel’ should be ~3 minutes
    

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37. Our first in class exercise!
    In a moment, we’re all going to into small groups with our pods
    Start by having everybody introduce themselves in alphabetical
    order
    Take 5 minutes to prep for your answer (guidance in course portal).
    Your ‘spiel’ should be ~3 minutes
    Take turns answering the question, jot down notes if you’re not the
    one speaking
    

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38. Our first in class exercise!
    In a moment, we’re all going to into small groups with our pods
    Start by having everybody introduce themselves in alphabetical
    order
    Take 5 minutes to prep for your answer (guidance in course portal).
    Your ‘spiel’ should be ~3 minutes
    Take turns answering the question, jot down notes if you’re not the
    one speaking
    Once everyone is done, get some feedback!
    

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40. Common Mistakes
    

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41. Common Mistakes
    • Not mentioning why you’re interested in the role / company
    

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42. Common Mistakes
    • Not mentioning why you’re interested in the role / company
    • Only talking about things that’s already on your resume
    

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43. Common Mistakes
    • Not mentioning why you’re interested in the role / company
    • Only talking about things that’s already on your resume
    • Not showing enthusiasm
    

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44. Common Mistakes
    • Not mentioning why you’re interested in the role / company
    • Only talking about things that’s already on your resume
    • Not showing enthusiasm
    • Not knowing about the company / role you’re interviewing for
    

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45. Great things to talk about
    • Interesting focuses / projects from past companies
    • Passion projects
    • Why you’re interested in the company
    • Specialities you’re interested in (Mobile, Machine Learning, …)
    

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46. Ready for our first
    breakout rooms?
    • For instructions, go into the course portal,
    Week 1 - Session 1
    • Let’s meet back at …. 4:25pm (Pacific),
    7:25pm (Eastern)
    

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47. How’d it go?
    

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48. The key to acing
    interviews
    

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49. The myth: I have to solve 300+ questions on
    Leetcode and memorize solutions in order to be
    successful in interviews
    

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50. The myth: I have to solve 300+ questions on
    Leetcode and memorize solutions in order to be
    successful in interviews
    The reality: Most problems can be solved following
    the same patterns / tricks. You should only have to
    study about 30-40 problems really well in order to be
    successful in 90% of coding interviews.
    

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51. The myth: I have to get every problem correct in the
    most optimal way in the fastest time frame to pass
    

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52. The myth: I have to get every problem correct in the
    most optimal way in the fastest time frame to pass
    Top Common interview mistakes:

    - not communicating with interviewer

    

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53. The myth: I have to get every problem correct in the
    most optimal way in the fastest time frame to pass
    Top Common interview mistakes:

    - not communicating with interviewer

    - jumping to conclusions / solving the wrong problem

    

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54. The myth: I have to get every problem correct in the
    most optimal way in the fastest time frame to pass
    Top Common interview mistakes:

    - not communicating with interviewer

    - jumping to conclusions / solving the wrong problem

    - doesn’t catch or can’t fix bugs

    

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55. The myth: I have to get every problem correct in the
    most optimal way in the fastest time frame to pass
    Top Common interview mistakes:

    - not communicating with interviewer

    - jumping to conclusions / solving the wrong problem

    - doesn’t catch or can’t fix bugs

    - not discussing space / run time tradeoffs 

    

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56. The myth: I have to get every problem correct in the
    most optimal way in the fastest time frame to pass
    Top Common interview mistakes:

    - not communicating with interviewer

    - jumping to conclusions / solving the wrong problem

    - doesn’t catch or can’t fix bugs

    - not discussing space / run time tradeoffs 

    - speed - interviewer wasn’t able to get a good signal
    

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57. U
    M
    P
    I
    R
    E
    

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58. Understand
    Match
    Plan
    Implement
    Review
    Evaluate
    

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59. Understand
    

    Understand what the interviewer is asking with clarifying questions
    and test cases
    

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60. Understand
    

    Understand what the interviewer is asking with clarifying questions
    and test cases
    State any assumptions you make 

    - is the input always sorted?

    - is the input guaranteed to satisfy x & y conditions?
    

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61. Understand
    

    Understand what the interviewer is asking with clarifying questions
    and test cases
    State any assumptions you make 

    - is the input always sorted?

    - is the input guaranteed to satisfy x & y conditions?
    Given… x input, do we expect y output?
    

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62. Match
    

    Does this problem match any common patterns we’ve seen?
    Which data structures / techniques can we use to simplify this
    problem?

    - can we use hash tables for easy lookup later?

    - would using stacks / queues be helpful?

    - should we use Depth First Search or Breadth First Search?
    

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63. Plan
    

    It’s easier to modify your solution before you write all the code
    

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64. Plan
    

    It’s easier to modify your solution before you write all the code
    Catch potential bugs before starting to write code
    

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65. Plan
    

    It’s easier to modify your solution before you write all the code
    Catch potential bugs before starting to write code
    Use diagrams and pseudocode to visualize how the problem will be
    solved
    

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66. Plan
    

    It’s easier to modify your solution before you write all the code
    Catch potential bugs before starting to write code
    Use diagrams and pseudocode to visualize how the problem will be
    solved
    Run through your approach with test cases to check that it works
    

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67. Implement
    Code!
    

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68. Review
    

    Trace through your code with an input to check for the expected
    output
    Catch possible edge cases and off-by-one errors
    

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69. Evaluate
    

    Analyze the run time and space complexity of your solution
    Discuss tradeoffs that were made, or assumptions that were taken
    

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70. Questions?
    

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71. Next Session
    

    Walk through a problem with UMPIRE approach
    Group exercise to try UMPIRE yourself!
    

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72. Survey
    

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